THE DAY DISNEY FIXED MY TEARS

Quick note: for some reason it is super important to me to document my Disney days step by step. This day and trip is hard though because I have been to Disneyland again before I got around to typing this up and it is all starting to run together! So hopefully, I at least get the highlights right...

On Monday May 13th we went to California Adventure. I started the day off on kind of a frantic pace because we got a late start and while we were still in our condo I realized that we had no hope of getting fast passes on Radiator Springs. It seems so absolutely silly now to think that this was so important, but it was for a few reasons. Stacey and my mom both of course had never been on it, and Vivi was finally tall enough to ride it. It just seemed so important to me at that time and now that I look back I wish I could change that attitude, but alas...I cannot.

Anyway, we got over there as fast as we could and we got some fast passes to Toy Story and I basically obsessed over fast passes for the rest of the day. We did come up with a good system Stella and I. I would tell her the time for the next pass and then she would set her watch alarm and we were on top of it for sure!

So the park was busier than I had ever seen it. And I was not expecting it to be so busy. So I was anxious to get some rides or something under our belt. But Stacey and my mom were both ready for lunch. So off they went to find a corn dog. Apparently, DCA has the best corn dogs in the world. And it was the best one my mom had ever had. But at this point I was mostly annoyed that everyone wanted to eat. Duh, it should not be a big deal that your human friends and family need food but to me it was extremely unproductive.  So we sat and enjoyed the pier and took some pictures and waited for the corn dog girls to return to us. Vivi LOVED the chips my mom got with her meal and she talked about those basic potato chips for days after.

Finally, we went on a ride. Vivi had been talking about going on Little Mermaid non stop since we had walked into the park so went on that. While we were waiting for hot dogs I got us earlier fast passes to Toy Story then I had before so we headed over to Toy Story. Mom chose not to ride it, and every time I go on it I think that is probably a good call for her. Then we went on the new Toy Story Carousel. It was fine, it is pretty much just a carousel though.

I had heard that the Frozen show was amazing, and we had never made the time for it before. Since it was a Vivi trip I made an effort to see Frozen. And I have to say, I really loved it. It was pretty amazing and I got all caught up in the story. It is as good as a Broadway show honestly and totally worth the time to stop and watch it. I was pretty hungry then so I snacked and made sure to get some more fast passes...but other than that we rested and enjoyed the show.

Then we had our fast passes to Soarin' and as we headed over there we saw Mickey Mouse so we stopped and said hi. He was leaving so we didn't get any formal pictures, but I got pictures of the girls saying a quick hello. This was my first time even riding Soarin' in CA. In fact, I think Stella was the only one in our group who had been on it before. Vivi was a bit nervous, but she LOVED it. As soon as we took off she burst into giggles. 

It was time to get some food. Vivi fell asleep on our way to the food and she was out. I knew at this point for sure that she was not feeling great. That is two days in a row that she had fallen asleep during the day at Disney, and Vivi Disney naps are unusual. We got soup in a bread bowl and the most adorable Mickey sugar cookie. After we ate, Vivi woke up hungry so I got in line to get food again. Stella and I had fast passes on Incredicoaster so we left a bit earlier and headed over their to ride it. We were even hoping to ride it twice sine we had plenty of fast passes. However, as we were about to get on the ride it broke! NO! We were so bummed. They gave us fast passes as a sorry, but it was still a bummer. We met up with everyone else and I figured we had time to ride the Ferris wheel before Stella and I had to walk to the other side of the park AGAIN for Guardians of the Galaxy. I asked the girl in line if we could use our fast passes for the Ferris wheel, and I can't remember if the answer was no, or if I was annoyed that she wouldn't just let us cut in line...I was so irrational at that point. But after pouting over it for a bit and then deciding we would use our passes she let us just go on the ride and we cut in front of everyone. Looking back it was kind of a jerk move, but I didn't seem to care at the time and I felt completely justified because of Incredicoaster breaking down. My logic was flawed, but sensible at the time. It was a great view, but one day I need to get myself on that ride with someone who is willing to go in the cages that actually move! One day...

So we have only been on Guardians of the Galaxy one time, I hated it and swore I would never ride it again. It made me super sick. But Stella really wanted to go and I was the only one willing. With her selfless attitude this trip, I wanted to do something for her. So we went. And that was the last time I will ride that. It was so crazy because I wanted to DIE and everyone around me was cheering and going nuts and I was praying I didn't pass out before it ended. It gave me a slice of compassion for Brent on rides. We got some cute pictures around there though, so in the end...worth it.

So all day I had been extremely focused on getting everyone on Radiator Springs and the line had been so long all day. Honestly, someone needed to slap me in the face to give me some sense because I was taking it WAY to seriously. I really wanted Vivi, Stacey and my mom to ride it. And time was running out fast. I thought we would wait until the park was closed and we could get in the line at the end of the day, but the line was still an hour and a half and everyone was so tired. So while in Cars land riding the smaller rides I decided I would try and use our remaining fast passes that we could technically use on any ride BUT Radiator Springs. But while we were in line for Luigi's, Radiator Springs BROKE DOWN! And I started CRYING. Like a real baby. REAL TEARS CRYING! Was I acting insane? YES. Could I help it? It didn't seem like it.

So mom had the idea that I should just go to customer service and try and upgrade our last day pass to a park hopper so we could go the next day. It seemed like a good idea and I calmed down, and we enjoyed our last ride on Luigi's. (I think that is my favorite ride at California Adventure.)

So we head over to Guest Relations. In all my Disney years, I have never gone there and complained about anything, but I felt like this time I needed to. So I went in and I told this very nice fellow that I knew that I wasn't the only person in the park that day disappointed that we couldn't ride Incredicoaster or Radiator Springs. I told him that it was my daughter's birthday trip and she was finally tall enough to ride it, and that I had brought my mom for Mother's Day and she had never ridden it. And finally, what would it cost to upgrade our last day to a park hopper. He goes on to tell me that I would have to upgrade all three of our days and it would cost like some crazy amount and to which I asked if that was our only option. Yes, it was. Cue the tears. I start crying and I apologize and I say it's just been so frustrating because I have planned this trip and I wanted it to go perfectly and it was just too much pressure and it tells me "Wait just a second let me see what I can do."

And he comes back five minutes later and tells me that "we don't usually do this" but he upgraded all of our passes to park hopper passes for free. I was super grateful and also felt like it was the right call since it doesn't cost Disney anything to have me at one park verses another park. I told him thank you so many times and I also asked him how I could have is job, because it is pretty much my dream job to work in customer relations for Disney...or give tours. I would do either honestly. He got us a birthday pin for Vivi and we were on our way. And just like that Disney made everything right in the world again.

We trekked home to get some rest for our last day, and sometime in the night, Vivi turned 4 and got sicker.